Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigations shared on Saturday that an American, who was abducted and held by captors in Mexico for eight months, was released on Friday night.
Monica De Leon Barba, a resident of San Mateo County, California, was taken into the country while she was walking with her dog in Tepatitlán, Mexico, at the end of last November, officials shared.
Security cameras caught De Leon Barba’s abduction, and the FBI shared the footage in April, hoping someone would come forward with information about the kidnapping.
De Leon Barba can be seen walking her dog when suspects using multiple vehicles quickly approached her. The suspects grabbed De Leon Barba, leaving the dog, and took off. The animal was later recovered.
The bureau did not share how it was able to orchestrate De Leon Barba’s release, but FBI special agent in charge of the San Francisco office Robert Tripp shared that the FBI has been working on her release since she was taken.
“For the past eight months, FBI personnel in California and Mexico have worked tirelessly with the family and with partners here and in Mexico,” Tripp said in a statement. “Our relief and joy at the safe return of Monica is profound.”
It was not shared who it was that abducted De Leon Barba and the FBI made no mention of the drug cartels in Mexico, which made headlines earlier this year after a string of kidnappings and disappearances.
While speaking to NBC Bay Area, De Leon Barba’s brother said that the FBI informed him that demands were made in her abduction. The FBI has not confirmed that her abductors were making any demands.
In the statement released on Saturday, the FBI said that the investigation remains ongoing at this moment.
“No arrests have been made, and an investigation into the identity of her captors remains ongoing,” the statement said.
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